BFM Aerospace Agrees to Buy Illinois Firm; Price Undisclosed

BFM Aerospace Corp. of Irvine has agreed to buy Grabill Aerospace of Deerfield, Ill., for an undisclosed sum, company officials said Tuesday.

The private firms both design and manufacture components and subsystems for aerospace and defense markets. The combined sales of the two companies are expected to exceed $280 million in 1989, according to a statement from BFM.

“The negotiations have been going on since October,” said Owen Blicksilver, an outside spokesman for BFM. “The synergy seems right. Aside from general synergy, what Grabill brings to BFM is a broader range of aerospace technology--in both the commercial and defense fields--as well as additional manufacturing capacity.”

In 1987, BFM bought three Lear Siegler aerospace divisions. BFM was formed by an investor group specifically to purchase the Lear divisions. Those investors include Acadia Partners LP, a merchant banking partnership, and Raebarn Corp., a leveraged buyout company.

“No major changes of any kind are anticipated,” Blicksilver said, when asked if any layoffs or plant closings were planned. “There’s no formal decision on whether the name will change, but it’s likely that it will, in which case Grabill will take the BFM name.”

The deal should close by the end of March, Blicksilver said.